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Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 07:35 pm
Tags:
Thursday, July 9th, 2026 12:21 pm
. . . why are there like gunshots/explosion sounds outside my window???
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 05:43 pm
Paul William Davies et al, The Residence
A cosy whodunnit set at the White House during a state dinner. About six hours' worth of material, spread over eight hour-long episodes. Rapid-fire dialogue reminiscent of Howard Hawks's screwball comedies, a fun birding-obsessed detective, and a great cast. Recommended.
Three thoughts after the last episode:
1) That last episode is emblematic of the Netflix Way. The detective gathers all the suspects to walk them through the crime, as is traditional for the genre (though she's doing it to see who will give themselves away, rather than because she knows). So she takes them all through a recap of everything that's come up in the series so far. Then, just in case you missed it, she spells out explicitly how the murder was committed, again, for the big reveal. Dumbed down, for people who've been half watching and half scrolling. Kudos to the writers for managing to keep the rest of the show interesting, but I was about ready to gnaw my arm off to escape yet more Here's What Happened.
I recognise that audiences can't be trusted anymore, what with the proliferation of videos explaining the ending of even fairly straightforward movies. I just wish it weren't so.
2) I did not so much call the culprit as really really want it to be that person.
3) The whole series demonstrates how mysteries are a fundamentally conservative genre. ( spoilers follow ) I have no beef with this in general; it's just really obvious, and not a little frustrating, in this instance.
A cosy whodunnit set at the White House during a state dinner. About six hours' worth of material, spread over eight hour-long episodes. Rapid-fire dialogue reminiscent of Howard Hawks's screwball comedies, a fun birding-obsessed detective, and a great cast. Recommended.
Three thoughts after the last episode:
1) That last episode is emblematic of the Netflix Way. The detective gathers all the suspects to walk them through the crime, as is traditional for the genre (though she's doing it to see who will give themselves away, rather than because she knows). So she takes them all through a recap of everything that's come up in the series so far. Then, just in case you missed it, she spells out explicitly how the murder was committed, again, for the big reveal. Dumbed down, for people who've been half watching and half scrolling. Kudos to the writers for managing to keep the rest of the show interesting, but I was about ready to gnaw my arm off to escape yet more Here's What Happened.
I recognise that audiences can't be trusted anymore, what with the proliferation of videos explaining the ending of even fairly straightforward movies. I just wish it weren't so.
2) I did not so much call the culprit as really really want it to be that person.
3) The whole series demonstrates how mysteries are a fundamentally conservative genre. ( spoilers follow ) I have no beef with this in general; it's just really obvious, and not a little frustrating, in this instance.
Tags:
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 05:04 pm
Fandom 50 #20
For 1996, a little roots rock from a band named for some 19th century colonial sloganeering.
Crossing a Canyon by 54-40
For 1996, a little roots rock from a band named for some 19th century colonial sloganeering.
Crossing a Canyon by 54-40
Tags:
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 06:33 pm
The Mass Effect Kink Meme a prompt meme for the Mass Effect games, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).
In this post:
- A bit of background explanation
- What this means for creators who have works on The Mass Effect Kink Meme
- And what to do if you still have questions
Background explanation
The archive is being imported to AO3 to preserve the works and make them available to a wider audience.
The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Liara!Mod to import The Mass Effect Kink Meme into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own.
We will begin importing works from The Mass Effect Kink Meme to AO3 no sooner than August 2026. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the archive. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collection in the meantime.
What does this mean for creators who have work on The Mass Effect Kink Meme?
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Please see the Open Doors Website for instructions on:
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We're excited to be able to help preserve The Mass Effect Kink Meme!
- The Open Doors team and Liara!Mod
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Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 07:08 pm
Hot again but drier than forecast and breezy as well, so I was fine getting up to physio and shopping. Because I stayed in yesterday and didn't wear a backpack, my shoulder was perfectly well-behaved. And then I put it on today and ouch. Physio acupunctured and taped shoulder so I trust it will go back to being quiet. Especially since tomorrow is supposed to be rain and thunderstorms off and on all day, so will be back to couch potatodom.
Finally got the form for my quarterly blood draw from my doctor's secretary-- who suddenly seems not to remember who I am: clearly out of sight, out of mind-- and now must get to the library to print it out and then get to the lab. I do hate the whole thing but needs must.
Finished only 100 Demons 27 last week. Had Witch King come through on an ebook library loan and am wading through that. Definitely wish I had it in paper, definitely wish there were not two narratives, find it oddly a downer for no good reason. Continue only because Kai has moments of sounding like Murderbot. And then there's the Ada Palmer that I'd like to concentrate on and can't. Perhaps I should let Witch King go to the 'two people waiting' and, well, concentrate on the nonfiction Renaissance, since nonfiction goes down so much easier in the hot weather we're forecast to have well into August.
Finally got the form for my quarterly blood draw from my doctor's secretary-- who suddenly seems not to remember who I am: clearly out of sight, out of mind-- and now must get to the library to print it out and then get to the lab. I do hate the whole thing but needs must.
Finished only 100 Demons 27 last week. Had Witch King come through on an ebook library loan and am wading through that. Definitely wish I had it in paper, definitely wish there were not two narratives, find it oddly a downer for no good reason. Continue only because Kai has moments of sounding like Murderbot. And then there's the Ada Palmer that I'd like to concentrate on and can't. Perhaps I should let Witch King go to the 'two people waiting' and, well, concentrate on the nonfiction Renaissance, since nonfiction goes down so much easier in the hot weather we're forecast to have well into August.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 03:50 pm
I was looking at the weather this morning and it looks like today may be the last cloudy day for a while, so I decided to make the Skechers trip today. It's a good 30 minutes away and I do not want to be driving that far in the sun. Fuck, I don't want to be driving that far in any weather, but my chauffeur is a no show, again.
It was a lot fiddlier of a drive than I expected but I made it. And after what seemed like half a day - it's a big store with way too many options - I finally found 2 pair of shoes and got the fuck out of there. Turns out it was only an hour. It just felt like half a day. One reason was that I was NOT going to buy any shoes that did not feel perfect from the jump. A lot came close. But I was on the hunt for perfect. I finally found a grayish loafer and a plain brown leather. It was a BOGO discount day so both pair cost me way less than I expected. And I got a cool backpack bag for free.
Then home. Then I cleared out every shoe that was not perfect. I took them all to the elbow and put a 'free' sign on them. (They took less than an hour to disappear.)
My closet looks NICE!
On to Food and Beverage Meeting which was excruciating. I kept my mouth shut except for at the end when the chairman asked me to read back the list I had gathered for the agenda. She did this last month and it led to another 45 minutes of meeting. I was ready this time and said 'I'll send it to you after the meeting.' She backed right off and we got the fuck out of there. The committee members each believe in their heart of hearts that every person in the world has the same taste, desires and food motivation that they do. It's just painful to listen to. And fucking pointless.
So then I got home and checked my phone and had a message from Costco about my Wegovy prescription. They need to reject my prescription so my doctor can finish my application to the Bridge program. But she insisted she needed my Medicare number before she could do that. They need to reject it on the basis of my lack of insurance coverage but I'm not sure that's what she's doing. Reddit is chock full of Bridge reject stories - and some good success stories - time will tell. I do not want to spend another $350 for a month BUT I can if I have to and I will so I really need to not stress over any of this.
The Mariners are now losing in the 2nd. I'd better concentrate.
It was a lot fiddlier of a drive than I expected but I made it. And after what seemed like half a day - it's a big store with way too many options - I finally found 2 pair of shoes and got the fuck out of there. Turns out it was only an hour. It just felt like half a day. One reason was that I was NOT going to buy any shoes that did not feel perfect from the jump. A lot came close. But I was on the hunt for perfect. I finally found a grayish loafer and a plain brown leather. It was a BOGO discount day so both pair cost me way less than I expected. And I got a cool backpack bag for free.
Then home. Then I cleared out every shoe that was not perfect. I took them all to the elbow and put a 'free' sign on them. (They took less than an hour to disappear.)
My closet looks NICE!
On to Food and Beverage Meeting which was excruciating. I kept my mouth shut except for at the end when the chairman asked me to read back the list I had gathered for the agenda. She did this last month and it led to another 45 minutes of meeting. I was ready this time and said 'I'll send it to you after the meeting.' She backed right off and we got the fuck out of there. The committee members each believe in their heart of hearts that every person in the world has the same taste, desires and food motivation that they do. It's just painful to listen to. And fucking pointless.
So then I got home and checked my phone and had a message from Costco about my Wegovy prescription. They need to reject my prescription so my doctor can finish my application to the Bridge program. But she insisted she needed my Medicare number before she could do that. They need to reject it on the basis of my lack of insurance coverage but I'm not sure that's what she's doing. Reddit is chock full of Bridge reject stories - and some good success stories - time will tell. I do not want to spend another $350 for a month BUT I can if I have to and I will so I really need to not stress over any of this.
The Mariners are now losing in the 2nd. I'd better concentrate.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 10:29 pm
Dave Wilton did a Big List post that starts:
One distinction between the British and North American lexicons is the usage of biscuit and cookie. What North Americans call a cookie, the British call a biscuit. And what Americans call a biscuit has no exact counterpart in British cuisine. American biscuits are savory and resemble a scone in some respects, but a scone is denser and less salty.
Nothing new there (and he goes on to etymology), but Syntinen Laulu left a comment on the companion discussion post that provided many details new to me, and I thought I’d pass it along:
It’s not quite that simple. For one thing, the British term biscuit encompasses savoury biscuits, sometimes called ‘cheese biscuits’ (which means biscuits for cheese, not cheese-flavoured). Many such biscuits are also known as crackers, as in the USA; but not all the types of biscuit eaten with cheese are of a crackery type.
For another thing, for nearly two centuries the English sweet biscuit has been overwhelmingly a shop-bought item. (I say ‘English’ advisedly, because many Scottish housewives continued to bake their own shortbread long after it became available in shops.) In my 1960s urban childhood it was normal to bake cakes both family-size and individual (e.g. scones, fairy cakes) at home, but home-baked biscuits were unusual. Since the 1830s the biscuit-baking industry had been popularising and standardising a wide range of sweet biscuits, all of them of dense dough baked hard so that they maintained a clean-cut symmetrical shape, stayed good for months if not years, and could survive being exported in tins to the far corners of the Empire without being reduced to crumbs. And although some were and are made in simple shapes and left quite plain, many types have elaborate shapes, are decorated, and/or include currants or jam, or are covered with icing (that’s frosting to Leftpondians) or chocolate, or are paired into ‘sandwiches’ with a flavoured filling.
But in the last couple of decades the British food industry has embraced the principle of the American cookie – made of cake-dough, baked long and slow to remain just a bit chewy, and more ‘home-made-looking’ – and marketed them by that name. These have become popular in the UK, and cookies are accepted by British people as a specific subcategory of the genus biscuit. So a British child asked ‘What are your favourite biscuits?’ might well say ‘Choc chip cookies!’ and a British host proffering a plate of only cookie-type biscuits might say either ‘Have a cookie’ or ‘Have a biscuit’. But if it were a plate of British-style biscuits, saying ‘Have a cookie’ would be clearly nonsensical: and if it were a mixture of both British and cookie-type biscuits, the offer ‘have a cookie’ would imply that the Garibaldis, Jammy Dodgers and Petticoat Tails on the plate weren’t meant for you.
NB also that in Scotland the word cookie traditionally meant a small soft slightly sweetened bun, intended to be split and filled with whipped cream (thus occupying much the same tea-time-treat space as the English scone). Whether this usage has survived the introduction of soft-biscuit cookies, I don’t know.
I’ll be interested to see what further knowledge Hatters provide.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 06:28 pm
My dental appointment went well - it was just a cleaning! - but they still want me to come every three months instead of twice a year. Sigh. Anyway, the appointment was timed so that I did not have coffee or breakfast beforehand, and didn't get home until a little after 1 pm, so I should have just had lunch. But I was so tired that sleep won out over food and I ended up taking a THREE HOUR tour nap. I did finally eat, but now I'm like, maybe I should just go back to bed? Idk.
Anyway, it's Wednesday and I have read some books!
What I've just finished
Radiant Star by Ann Leckie. This was enjoyable but very low-key, even at the climax.
Long Live Evil and All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan. Hiilarious and very genre-savvy portal fantasy. I enjoyed both books and am hoping the third one sticks the landing. Sadly, it's not due out until next summer. Alas.
What I'm reading now
Dead Hand Rule by Max Gladstone, which is the third (and final?) book in the Craft Wars trilogy? series? Idk. I'm enjoying it but he is pulling people from all over the first series and I don't always remember who they are since it's been a while since I read those books.
What I'm reading next
As ever, it is a mystery.
*
Anyway, it's Wednesday and I have read some books!
What I've just finished
Radiant Star by Ann Leckie. This was enjoyable but very low-key, even at the climax.
Long Live Evil and All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan. Hiilarious and very genre-savvy portal fantasy. I enjoyed both books and am hoping the third one sticks the landing. Sadly, it's not due out until next summer. Alas.
What I'm reading now
Dead Hand Rule by Max Gladstone, which is the third (and final?) book in the Craft Wars trilogy? series? Idk. I'm enjoying it but he is pulling people from all over the first series and I don't always remember who they are since it's been a while since I read those books.
What I'm reading next
As ever, it is a mystery.
*
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 06:16 pm
In this sequel to A Memory Called Empire, Ambassador Mahit Dzmare and her imperial liaison/maybe-kinda-girlfriend Three Seagrass travel to the front lines of an interstellar war on a mission to try to decipher the alien enemy's language and establish diplomatic relations. What Three Seagrass doesn't know is that Mahit is also on a covert mission to sabotage diplomacy and keep the Teixcalaan Empire mired in an endless, unwinnable war.
I was so-so on A Memory Called Empire. I would say I had a stronger reaction to the sequel, both positive and negative.
First, the positive: I loved Nine Hibiscus and Twenty Cicada, new characters in this installment. She's the passionate, brilliant captain of the flagship, he's her loyal, cerebral first officer who adheres to a stoic alien philosophy. They deal with high-stakes ethical quandaries as the lives of millions hang in the balance, and they love each other with an intensity that goes largely unspoken. Is this aspect of the book pandering to people who love Kirk and Spock? Perhaps, but I had a great time being pandered to. I wanted the entire book to be about these two.
I mostly liked the stuff about establishing communication with the aliens too, which is also classically Star Trek in tone and approach. (It bugged me a little that the linguistics wasn't more realistic, but you rarely get that in SF and it isn't really the point here.)
Unfortunately, the things I liked were pretty definitively outweighed by all the half-baked themes, garbled political messaging, and many characters' infuriatingly stupid choices and baffling cluelessness. It wasn't quite throw-the-book-across-the-room level, but at certain moments it got close.
- I don't get the way the Mahit/Three Seagrass relationship is written at all. In the first book, they liked each other from the start and then nothing happened with it until suddenly they kissed at the end. In this one, they have a stupid fight at the beginning and feel weird and uncomfortable around each other for hundreds of pages until suddenly they fuck. This didn't work for me. It especially didn't work because I felt like I was supposed to side with Mahit in their argument, but I didn't, because Three Seagrass doesn't know what Mahit is mad about and Mahit refuses to tell her. Mahit's narration is explicit that she wants Three Seagrass to know what's bothering her without being told, so basically she's punishing Three Seagrass for not being fucking psychic. Am I the only one who thinks it would have been more interesting if they'd actually ever talked about any of the issues between them, rather than just winding themselves up about it in their heads?? By the end I wasn't rooting for them to get/stay together at all, so when Mahit ran away from the relationship (again) I didn't even care.
- I felt the lack of gender stuff in the first book was a missed opportunity. In this book, the author seems to be strenuously trying to miss that opportunity as hard as she can. There is one scene where Mahit (in their shared consciousness) accuses Yskandr of not understanding fashion for "female-bodied people." It's brushed off. There's another scene where Three Seagrass says she wasn't sure if Mahit liked people of her "gender and sex," and several where Three Seagrass silently wonders if she had sex with Mahit, or with Mahit and Yskandr, or just Yskandr. No further discussion of these points. I truly don't understand what Martine is going for here. She chose to create a protagonist who is a woman sharing a mind and body with a man. She seems dimly aware that there might be interesting things one could say about this. She apparently doesn't want to say any of them.
- Even leaving aside the gender issues, I think there's a lot more that could have been done to explore the mindsharing scenario. Yskandr often reads like an invisible sidekick who just pipes up now and then to give Mahit some information, advice, or a snarky comment. What is his experience/consciousness/sense of embodiment like? We don't get his own internal monologue, just the things he "says" to Mahit. It doesn't feel as weird and alien as it seems like it should.
- Mahit and Twenty Cicada should have talked! He's assimilated to Teixcalaan in some ways but maintained his cultural distinctiveness in others; doesn't that seem like an extremely relevant perspective for Mahit to hear? The books act like Mahit is the only one in the galaxy who has mixed feelings about Teixcalaan, but surely she can't be.
- On a larger level, these books are about an absolutist expansionist empire and the vulnerable republic it threatens, and nothing about any of that is resolved or even really explored all that much. The child heir Eight Antidote is an interesting character and he's trying to do the right thing, but there's so much more going on here that can't and won't be resolved by a kid with some moral fiber taking the throne. Having a relatively nice emperor does not solve the problems of imperialism. In this book we learn more about how systemically fucked up Lsel is too, and nothing happens with that either. The plot doesn't even make it hard for Mahit to decide whether to stay loyal to Lsel, since there are power-mad authorities on Lsel who want to KILL HER. No wonder people were expecting a trilogy here; this book does not wrap up a single loose end.
Okay, that's probably more than enough of a rant. TL;DR: Book dances around a lot of interesting speculative and interpersonal possibilities and solidly lands on very few of them.
I was so-so on A Memory Called Empire. I would say I had a stronger reaction to the sequel, both positive and negative.
First, the positive: I loved Nine Hibiscus and Twenty Cicada, new characters in this installment. She's the passionate, brilliant captain of the flagship, he's her loyal, cerebral first officer who adheres to a stoic alien philosophy. They deal with high-stakes ethical quandaries as the lives of millions hang in the balance, and they love each other with an intensity that goes largely unspoken. Is this aspect of the book pandering to people who love Kirk and Spock? Perhaps, but I had a great time being pandered to. I wanted the entire book to be about these two.
I mostly liked the stuff about establishing communication with the aliens too, which is also classically Star Trek in tone and approach. (It bugged me a little that the linguistics wasn't more realistic, but you rarely get that in SF and it isn't really the point here.)
Unfortunately, the things I liked were pretty definitively outweighed by all the half-baked themes, garbled political messaging, and many characters' infuriatingly stupid choices and baffling cluelessness. It wasn't quite throw-the-book-across-the-room level, but at certain moments it got close.
Ranting and spoilers
- How can it possibly take SO LONG for the characters to figure out that the aliens are a hivemind???? It's not just that it's a basic SF trope and obvious to the reader from literally the first page of the book. It's also that all the prompting the characters need to make the leap is right there in front of them the whole time! Mahit herself has Yskandr's mind in her head, there are the Sunlit guards and the Shard pilots who share their perceptions through technology... To these characters, the existence of a species with a shared consciousness shouldn't even be surprising. But it still takes them 400 fucking pages to figure it out, and they act like it's a galaxy-shattering shock. This makes no sense whatsoever and it makes most of the characters look inexcusably dumb.- I don't get the way the Mahit/Three Seagrass relationship is written at all. In the first book, they liked each other from the start and then nothing happened with it until suddenly they kissed at the end. In this one, they have a stupid fight at the beginning and feel weird and uncomfortable around each other for hundreds of pages until suddenly they fuck. This didn't work for me. It especially didn't work because I felt like I was supposed to side with Mahit in their argument, but I didn't, because Three Seagrass doesn't know what Mahit is mad about and Mahit refuses to tell her. Mahit's narration is explicit that she wants Three Seagrass to know what's bothering her without being told, so basically she's punishing Three Seagrass for not being fucking psychic. Am I the only one who thinks it would have been more interesting if they'd actually ever talked about any of the issues between them, rather than just winding themselves up about it in their heads?? By the end I wasn't rooting for them to get/stay together at all, so when Mahit ran away from the relationship (again) I didn't even care.
- I felt the lack of gender stuff in the first book was a missed opportunity. In this book, the author seems to be strenuously trying to miss that opportunity as hard as she can. There is one scene where Mahit (in their shared consciousness) accuses Yskandr of not understanding fashion for "female-bodied people." It's brushed off. There's another scene where Three Seagrass says she wasn't sure if Mahit liked people of her "gender and sex," and several where Three Seagrass silently wonders if she had sex with Mahit, or with Mahit and Yskandr, or just Yskandr. No further discussion of these points. I truly don't understand what Martine is going for here. She chose to create a protagonist who is a woman sharing a mind and body with a man. She seems dimly aware that there might be interesting things one could say about this. She apparently doesn't want to say any of them.
- Even leaving aside the gender issues, I think there's a lot more that could have been done to explore the mindsharing scenario. Yskandr often reads like an invisible sidekick who just pipes up now and then to give Mahit some information, advice, or a snarky comment. What is his experience/consciousness/sense of embodiment like? We don't get his own internal monologue, just the things he "says" to Mahit. It doesn't feel as weird and alien as it seems like it should.
- Mahit and Twenty Cicada should have talked! He's assimilated to Teixcalaan in some ways but maintained his cultural distinctiveness in others; doesn't that seem like an extremely relevant perspective for Mahit to hear? The books act like Mahit is the only one in the galaxy who has mixed feelings about Teixcalaan, but surely she can't be.
- On a larger level, these books are about an absolutist expansionist empire and the vulnerable republic it threatens, and nothing about any of that is resolved or even really explored all that much. The child heir Eight Antidote is an interesting character and he's trying to do the right thing, but there's so much more going on here that can't and won't be resolved by a kid with some moral fiber taking the throne. Having a relatively nice emperor does not solve the problems of imperialism. In this book we learn more about how systemically fucked up Lsel is too, and nothing happens with that either. The plot doesn't even make it hard for Mahit to decide whether to stay loyal to Lsel, since there are power-mad authorities on Lsel who want to KILL HER. No wonder people were expecting a trilogy here; this book does not wrap up a single loose end.
Okay, that's probably more than enough of a rant. TL;DR: Book dances around a lot of interesting speculative and interpersonal possibilities and solidly lands on very few of them.
Tags:
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 05:33 pm
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 04:46 pm
Am I just noticing it, or is there a real surge in current fsf that takes religion seriously as part of its plotting, characterization, and worldbuilding?
Jason Pargin, There Are No Giant Crabs in This Novel: A Novel of Giant Crabs: ( existential horror )
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre:( reader, I reread it )
Francis Spufford, Nonesuch: ( WWII fantasy )
Ann Leckie, Radiant Star: ( revolution has consequences )
Alexis Hall, Hell’s Heart: ( sapphic Moby Dick ... in ... spaaaace )
Peter Watts, Fold Catastrophes: ( cyborg futures )
Naomi Kritzer, Obstetrix: ( reproductive horror )
Chuck Tingle, Fabulous Bodies: ( nope )
John Wiswell, The Dragon Has Some Complaints:( one dragon, several heads )
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Green City Wars: ( uplift noir )
Caitlyn Paxson, A Widow’s Charm: ( fantasy romance with some door-slamming farce )
Allie Therin, Edge of Mercy: ( empaths in love )
M.A. Carrick, The Eye of The Leviathan:( faeries and the Inquisition )
Jason Pargin, There Are No Giant Crabs in This Novel: A Novel of Giant Crabs: ( existential horror )
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre:( reader, I reread it )
Francis Spufford, Nonesuch: ( WWII fantasy )
Ann Leckie, Radiant Star: ( revolution has consequences )
Alexis Hall, Hell’s Heart: ( sapphic Moby Dick ... in ... spaaaace )
Peter Watts, Fold Catastrophes: ( cyborg futures )
Naomi Kritzer, Obstetrix: ( reproductive horror )
Chuck Tingle, Fabulous Bodies: ( nope )
John Wiswell, The Dragon Has Some Complaints:( one dragon, several heads )
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Green City Wars: ( uplift noir )
Caitlyn Paxson, A Widow’s Charm: ( fantasy romance with some door-slamming farce )
Allie Therin, Edge of Mercy: ( empaths in love )
M.A. Carrick, The Eye of The Leviathan:( faeries and the Inquisition )
Thursday, July 9th, 2026 12:24 am
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 02:53 pm
Unexpected bingo square: Nietzsche quote in my Thai BL 😂
(I originally shared this on discord because that’s where I put microposting these days and then I figured: why not here?)
(I originally shared this on discord because that’s where I put microposting these days and then I figured: why not here?)
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 11:20 am
Water is still taking up a lot of bandwidth. It’s the cows, the time of year and the age of the system. Yesterday I used quite a lot of water in the garden, including some that escaped when a connection on the drip system came apart. Fortunately there was water in the overflow trough, and some in the trough at the house so I wasn’t too worried. I did talk to Cody because, by yesterday we had had water for a couple of days and I had seen exactly 2 cows and their calves. The rest of the herd was missing. Cody thought about it, and decided to go find the cows in the easiest, fastest way. He went out at noon, when the cows were “shaded up”, that is lying down in the shade near water. Smart cows, they take a nap during the hot part of the day. They were quite grumpy and hard to move when he insisted on driving them down to the House Pasture.
( Pics )
Tuesday, July 7th, 2026 01:40 pm
I'm STILL not done with the water project. Only one more project involving gluing PVC left to do; however I now also want to replace the problamatic bit of pipe that is in the creek. That pipe is never going to stop trying to coil back up into its original coil and every time it does so it cuts off my water supply by airlocking. I might as well put a new piece of pipe in there that will lie flat without being weighted down by piles of rocks that will wash away with the next heavy rain.
Day before yesterday involved another visit to Fort Bragg. My body feels ever so much better!
This morning Mark O came up to help. I was going to have him help replace the pipe, but he is terribly allergic to poison oak and there is a lot of it up there. So instead we moved the old 6 ft tank into position in the garden. I threw some wood in the bottom and we shoveled out the last of the wood compost from the truck into it. A trip to town filled the truck back up with a planting mix. We put most of the load into the old tank. It is really, really nice mix, the plants will love it. I have a couple winter squash planted and a couple okra will go in this evening when it cools off.
We also worked for a few minutes on the solar, driving rebar through the wooden and the brick paving base to make a really sturdy footing for it.
In the last couple of days I've gotten a lot of the remaining plant materials removed from right next to the house. Should be more fire safe now.
Day before yesterday involved another visit to Fort Bragg. My body feels ever so much better!
This morning Mark O came up to help. I was going to have him help replace the pipe, but he is terribly allergic to poison oak and there is a lot of it up there. So instead we moved the old 6 ft tank into position in the garden. I threw some wood in the bottom and we shoveled out the last of the wood compost from the truck into it. A trip to town filled the truck back up with a planting mix. We put most of the load into the old tank. It is really, really nice mix, the plants will love it. I have a couple winter squash planted and a couple okra will go in this evening when it cools off.
We also worked for a few minutes on the solar, driving rebar through the wooden and the brick paving base to make a really sturdy footing for it.
In the last couple of days I've gotten a lot of the remaining plant materials removed from right next to the house. Should be more fire safe now.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 06:48 pm
Edinburgh has been good so far! Our hotel is lovely, the food is good, and it has an elevator and working a/c, yay!
Proof that I can go out in the sun and not immediately die!
My pain levels with my back and hips fluctuate, and sometimes for no discernible reason. BUT! One of the things we were wondering about appears to be true: I’m far less inflamed and in general background pain, and it’s almost certainly due to the food. This is something I’ve read a lot about; people with some sort of chronic pain issue finding it eases up when they’re eating outside of the US. Hell, it turns out that the bun of the breakfast sandwich I’ve eaten for the past three days has traces of corn in it, and I’ve had no reactions. And I’m less bloated. That’s it, moving to the UK to live off salads, black pudding, and scones with clotted cream.
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As is traditional, I went to Marks & Spencers and bought a lot of underthings. I may hit another M&S to buy additional bras, because the two I got are fantastic.
Proof that I can go out in the sun and not immediately die!
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 10:04 am
"We call it a society. It involves coming to accommodations with others."
Goes backwards—and sideways—through time, looking at the events of the last three books from another set of perspectives. Introduces some new characters and locations, brings back some old ones, and does a great job of balancing epic world building with the minutiae of being a person in a society.
If you haven't read this series, you can't start here. And if you have, don't expect the corvids from the last book to join us for this one; Tchaikovsky seems to be switching up the way this series works.
Contains: BUGS (like huge gross bugs, plus the usual spiders and ants), GORE (just, guts, everywhere), BODY HORROR (guts and body parts in places they shouldn't be), animal harm.
Goes backwards—and sideways—through time, looking at the events of the last three books from another set of perspectives. Introduces some new characters and locations, brings back some old ones, and does a great job of balancing epic world building with the minutiae of being a person in a society.
If you haven't read this series, you can't start here. And if you have, don't expect the corvids from the last book to join us for this one; Tchaikovsky seems to be switching up the way this series works.
Contains: BUGS (like huge gross bugs, plus the usual spiders and ants), GORE (just, guts, everywhere), BODY HORROR (guts and body parts in places they shouldn't be), animal harm.
Tags:
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 11:39 am
When things are stressful, I often find myself gravitating even more towards the relative calmness of Dreamwidth. However, I’ve been struggling with how to actually read updates here.
( Read more... )
So, I’m stuck!
( Read more... )
So, I’m stuck!
Tags:
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 12:31 pm
We're generally getting ourselves settled into a routine here. It's a bit funny and strange to be in Tucson, where I know hardly anyone, as compared to Tempe, where I wind up feeling like I know far too many people and have to deliberately carve out time and space for focus work. Here, I am more concerned about my research students feeling socially isolated, all in the middle of a big city. I have some ideas for addressing that, at least - we could see if the local yarn shop has knitting/crochet groups, for instance.
Anyway, for me the basic routine is looking like: up at 4 am, go for a jog/walk, drink coffee, head out to the field very shortly after sunrise to look for foraging ants for a couple hours. Return, eat breakfast, work on computer-based research tasks until lunch. After lunch, process any collected ants and leaves, then dinner and early bedtime for me.
We had the beginnings of monsoon weather last night, which dropped rain on outlying areas but not yet the places where it matters most to me. If we get real rain, that will blow any notions of a routine right out of the water, because we'll need to prioritize work with any queens we can get, and that's always a major race against the clock.
Anyway, for me the basic routine is looking like: up at 4 am, go for a jog/walk, drink coffee, head out to the field very shortly after sunrise to look for foraging ants for a couple hours. Return, eat breakfast, work on computer-based research tasks until lunch. After lunch, process any collected ants and leaves, then dinner and early bedtime for me.
We had the beginnings of monsoon weather last night, which dropped rain on outlying areas but not yet the places where it matters most to me. If we get real rain, that will blow any notions of a routine right out of the water, because we'll need to prioritize work with any queens we can get, and that's always a major race against the clock.
Friday, July 10th, 2026 11:26 am
This has to have been an EARLY scifi novel. 80s- to early 00s at the latest.
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( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 07:07 am
I'm retiring from volleyball. I got an email last night that they were starting up again Saturday and would be playing at the same time on Saturday and then an hour and a half later on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I had said that I'd play at the former times but not the later ones, when the note came out, I discovered that I really wasn't interested in playing at all any more. It was fun. But I'm done. It's part of my Just Say No campaign.
Once a year the 3rd floor of Timber Ridge (our side over here and the 3rd floor in the other wing which has twice as many people as we do) get together for a combined dinner. In the Summer it's outside with mostly very mediocre food, a very lousy but loud band and a lot of old people. Last Summer, I went and decided it was my last time. I don't like eating outside. So when asked, I said no. They keep trying and I keep no-ing. The dinner is next week. I think the deadline is sometime this week so I think I've no'd successfully.
The dinner with Bonny and Jackie turned out to be dinner with Bonny and Jackie and Jan and Dick and so I said OK. Jan and Dick are nice, reasonable people and a nice buffer. So it will be fine and should keep me off the hook for a while.
For several reasons, I decided to get Xfinity wifi again. I had it and canceled it in December but the Timber Ridge wifi has been suffering and I just got tired of fighting it. So I hooked up the router and the modem and plugged everything in and called Xfinity last night. Their telephone tree is now a small bush and soon I had Joe on the line. Joe was perfect. I explained what I wanted - just turn on the tap, plz. We talked terms - $50 a month for 5 years or $40 a month for one year. I took Door #2. He set up my payment account with a text and then he turned on the tap. I did a speed test and told him Thank You Very Much. 23 minutes and 48 seconds. And a very pleasant encounter. Plus now my internet speed went from 10 to 350. So. cool.
I haven't sold any tech in a long time. BUT I wanted to sell my new-ish tablet. I was not up for eBay or even Swappa. I just wanted to exchange it for cash. I asked Gemini for the easiest option and it gave me a few links to places that offer cash. I plugged in the details and picked the highest price. Turned out to be a place called GoRoostr.com Great pick, as it turns out. Very excellent customer service. Very responsive. The box got there yesterday. The money is in my bank account this morning. Impressive.
Today is a food and beverage meeting and then a package pickup and package drop off but I am pretty sure I can do both at the same place. Time to change the sheets and also laundry.
Once a year the 3rd floor of Timber Ridge (our side over here and the 3rd floor in the other wing which has twice as many people as we do) get together for a combined dinner. In the Summer it's outside with mostly very mediocre food, a very lousy but loud band and a lot of old people. Last Summer, I went and decided it was my last time. I don't like eating outside. So when asked, I said no. They keep trying and I keep no-ing. The dinner is next week. I think the deadline is sometime this week so I think I've no'd successfully.
The dinner with Bonny and Jackie turned out to be dinner with Bonny and Jackie and Jan and Dick and so I said OK. Jan and Dick are nice, reasonable people and a nice buffer. So it will be fine and should keep me off the hook for a while.
For several reasons, I decided to get Xfinity wifi again. I had it and canceled it in December but the Timber Ridge wifi has been suffering and I just got tired of fighting it. So I hooked up the router and the modem and plugged everything in and called Xfinity last night. Their telephone tree is now a small bush and soon I had Joe on the line. Joe was perfect. I explained what I wanted - just turn on the tap, plz. We talked terms - $50 a month for 5 years or $40 a month for one year. I took Door #2. He set up my payment account with a text and then he turned on the tap. I did a speed test and told him Thank You Very Much. 23 minutes and 48 seconds. And a very pleasant encounter. Plus now my internet speed went from 10 to 350. So. cool.
I haven't sold any tech in a long time. BUT I wanted to sell my new-ish tablet. I was not up for eBay or even Swappa. I just wanted to exchange it for cash. I asked Gemini for the easiest option and it gave me a few links to places that offer cash. I plugged in the details and picked the highest price. Turned out to be a place called GoRoostr.com Great pick, as it turns out. Very excellent customer service. Very responsive. The box got there yesterday. The money is in my bank account this morning. Impressive.
Today is a food and beverage meeting and then a package pickup and package drop off but I am pretty sure I can do both at the same place. Time to change the sheets and also laundry.